Apple has said that more than 100,000 apps have now been optimised for the iPhone Duo, just two weeks after its first foldable phone started reaching customers. The company says thousands more tuned versions are arriving on the App Store every day as developers update their software for the folding screen.
The milestone matters because a foldable phone lives or dies on its software. A bigger screen is only useful if the apps on it actually use the extra space, and in the first days after launch many owners found familiar apps stretching across the inner display or leaving empty bands at the edges. Crossing six figures in a fortnight suggests developers have moved faster than many expected.
Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, said developers had taken to the new device quickly, a message aimed as much at people still deciding whether to buy the phone as at developers themselves.
The speed of the response is striking when set against the phone’s short life so far. Apple opened pre-orders on October 16, priced from 1,999 dollars for the 256GB model, and the first batch sold out within minutes. The phone reached shops on October 23 in more than 70 countries and regions, with deliveries for later buyers slipping into late January 2027. It opens like a book from a compact 5.4-inch outer screen into a 7.6-inch inner display, powered by the A20 Pro chip and running iOS 27.1.
That launch put Apple into a market its rivals have been building for years. Samsung, Google and others have sold folding phones for some time, and all faced the same early problem: apps designed for a single slab of glass do not automatically behave well on a screen that changes shape while you are using it. Researchers expect Apple to change the scale of that market quickly. IDC has told Reuters that Apple could take 31 percent of foldable phone sales and 44 percent of the segment’s value in 2026, while TrendForce has projected around 5 million Duo shipments this year.
Popular Apps Optimised for iPhone Duo
Apple named a long list of well-known apps that now support the foldable properly. Microsoft’s Office apps, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word, are among them, alongside Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Netflix, Zoom and Amazon Prime Video. Others already updated include Etsy, Goodnotes, Halide Mark III, the NBA and NHL apps, Fantastical, Flighty, MLB and SmartGym.
The company marks these apps with a Made for iPhone Duo badge on their App Store pages when viewed on the device, so buyers can tell at a glance whether an app has been tuned for the folding screen. A properly optimised app fills the inner display, rearranges its panels so that two things can sit side by side, and keeps buttons and text clear of the hinge. A spreadsheet app, for instance, can show a sheet and its tools at once, while a video app can use the full width of the unfolded screen.
Apple Holds Developer Workshops to Improve App Support
Behind the numbers sits a concerted effort to bring developers along. Apple says it has run more than 50 in-person workshops in 19 cities over the past month, drawing in excess of 2,000 developers. The sessions showed app makers how to adapt their software for the Duo’s two displays and its partly folded positions, including a laptop-style angle and a stand mode for video calls.
The company says apps built with its standard SwiftUI and UIKit building blocks can adapt to the new displays automatically, without a full rebuild. It has also introduced new programming tools that let developers design custom layouts and adjust how their apps respond to the hinge position, so controls move away from the fold and content can be presented across both displays when the phone is partly open.
Many Apps Still Need Optimisation
For all the progress, the work is far from finished. The App Store holds millions of apps, and most of them have not yet been fully optimised for the Duo. Older apps will still open and run on the device, but some do not fill the inner display properly, leaving unused space around the interface, while others may place important buttons too close to the fold.
Google Maps is among the latest apps to receive an update for full compatibility, a sign that even the biggest names are still working through their catalogues. Apple expects developers to keep releasing optimised versions at a growing rate, and the daily flow of new updates suggests the pace is quickening rather than slowing.
For now, though, the direction of travel is clear. More than 100,000 optimised apps in two weeks, a steady stream of daily updates, and direct support from Apple through workshops and new development tools all point the same way. The Duo’s hardware drew the crowds and the headlines, but its long-term success will depend on whether the software keeps pace, and on that measure the first fortnight has given Apple something genuine to boast about.
